New York Laws
Article 125 - City University of New York
6212 - Tenure.

§ 6212. Tenure. 1. The following words and phrases, for the purposes
of this section, shall have the following meanings:

a. "Educational unit" shall mean a college, school, preparatory
school, high school, or model school.

b. "Instructional staff" shall mean the persons employed by the board
of trustees in the educational units governed and administered by it in
the grades or positions of president, dean, director, professor,
associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, fellow, lecturer,
senior registrar, registrar, assistant registrar, associate registrar,
college laboratory technicians; in the high school and model school:
principal, first assistant, supervisor, instructor, assistant teacher,
critic teacher, teacher; or in any grade or position which the board of
trustees in its discretion may add thereto.

c. "Tenure" shall mean the right of a person to hold his position
during good behavior and efficient and competent service, and not to be
removed therefrom except for cause in the manner hereinafter provided.

2. All members of the permanent instructional staff of the educational
units governed and administered by the board of trustees shall have
tenure.

3. The permanent instructional staff shall consist of all persons
employed by the city university on an annual salary basis at the
educational units governed and administered by the board of trustees as
follows: (a) in the grades of professor, associate professor, assistant
professor, or in any grade or position which the board in its discretion
may add thereto, who, after serving on an annual salary in any of the
grades or positions enumerated or provided for in this paragraph for
seven full years continuously, have been appointed or shall be appointed
for an eighth full year, except as provided in subdivisions four and
five of this section; and (b) in the grades of college laboratory
technician, senior registrar, registrar, assistant registrar, associate
registrar, assistant librarian and in the elementary and high schools:
instructor, assistant teacher, critic teacher, or teacher, or in any
grade or position which the board in its discretion may add thereto,
who, after serving on an annual salary in any of the grades or positions
enumerated or provided for in this paragraph for five full years
continuously, have been appointed or shall be appointed for a sixth full
year, except as provided in subdivision four of this section; the
membership of such persons on the permanent instructional staff as
provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall become effective
on the first day of September following their reappointment for the
eighth full year, and the membership of such persons on the permanent
instructional staff as provided for in this paragraph shall become
effective on the first day of September following their reappointment
for the sixth full year. Where the service of a member of the
instructional staff, in one of the titles listed or provided for herein,
is interrupted by reason of absence on a maternity or child care leave
duly granted by the board of trustees, the period of creditable service
immediately preceding such absence shall be counted in computing the
full years of service required by this subdivision.

4. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as conferring or
permitting tenure, or service credit toward the achievement of tenure,
in the grades or positions of president, director, assistant director,
dean, assistant dean, head of instructional department, chairman of
instructional department, fellow, laboratory teaching assistant,
principal, supervisor, or first assistant. Appointment to such grade or
position, or removal therefrom, however, shall not deprive the person so
appointed or removed of tenure in the highest position on the
instructional staff held with tenure prior to his appointment to such

office or conjointly with such office, nor shall the appointment to,
holding of, or removal from such grade or position deprive any person of
service credit toward the achievement of tenure under the provisions of
this section.

5. Persons appointed to the rank of professor, associate professor or
assistant professor may under the provisions of the board of trustee's
by-laws be placed on the permanent instructional staff by the board of
trustees in its discretion after not less than one nor more than seven
years of continuous full time service on an annual salary except that
persons of proven record who have achieved tenure at another recognized
institution of higher learning and whose appointment is to the rank of
professor may be granted tenure immediately on appointment. Persons
promoted to the rank of professor shall be granted tenure after not more
than four years of continuous full time service on an annual salary in
positions on the instructional staff.

6. For the purpose of appointments and promotions in the instructional
staff which may be made after April twentieth, nineteen hundred forty,
the board of trustees shall determine to what extent examinations are
practicable to ascertain merit and fitness for each of the positions
within the educational units covered and administered by it and, in so
far as examinations are deemed practicable, shall determine to what
extent it is practicable that such examinations be competitive. Any
examination held in accordance with the provisions of this subdivision
shall be set and administered through any agency which the board of
trustees may from time to time create or designate.

7. Neither tenure as conferred through the operation of this section
nor the period requisite for the achievement of tenure shall be affected
by transfer within the educational units governed and administered by
the board of trustees, or by promotion, or by change of title, except
that a person upon whom tenure is conferred through the operation of
this section and who may be transferred to any position within the
educational units governed and administered by the board of trustees, or
who may be promoted, or whose title may be changed, shall have tenure in
his new position, provided such position is not one of those enumerated
in subdivision four of this section. Nothing herein contained shall be
construed to prevent the board of trustees from assigning any person
having tenure to any appropriate position on the staff, but no such
assignment shall carry with it a reduction in rank or a reduction in
salary other than the elimination of any additional emolument provided
for administrative positions. Any person in a position on the
instructional staff just prior to the effective date of this article
shall not be affected with respect to his tenure or the time credit
earned towards such tenure, or the period requisite for the achievement
of tenure under the law as it existed just prior to the effective date
of this article.

8. A position held by a person upon whom tenure is conferred through
the operation of this section may be abolished or discontinued by the
board of trustees for reasons which are not discriminatory against a
particular person or persons. In the event that a position in a
department is to be abolished or discontinued, such position shall be
that of the person last appointed to such department, save that, for
special educational reasons which are not discriminatory against a
particular person or persons, the board of trustees may continue the
services of a person or persons whose position or positions would
otherwise be abolished or discontinued, and abolish or discontinue the
position or positions of the person or persons next most recently
appointed to such department; provided, however, that all persons of any
grade in such department upon whom tenure is not conferred by the

operation of this section shall be dismissed before the position of any
other person in such department is abolished or discontinued. If the
board of trustees abolishes or discontinues the position of a person
upon whom tenure is conferred through the operation of this section and
can find no position in the educational unit in which such person has
been serving which can be efficiently and capably filled by such person,
then his name shall be placed and shall remain for three years upon a
preferred eligible list of candidates for reappointment to fill a
vacancy that may thereafter occur in a position which can be efficiently
and capably filled by such person or to fill a newly created position
which can be efficiently and capably filled by such person. The board of
trustees shall, through the adoption of appropriate by-laws, determine
the number of such preferred eligible lists, the extent of applicability
of each such list, and the order of reappointment therefrom to vacancies
in positions under its jurisdiction or to newly created positions under
its jurisdiction. No names shall be placed on such preferred eligible
lists except as hereinbefore provided for persons upon whom tenure is
conferred through the operation of this section. Any person reappointed
from a preferred eligible list shall be reappointed at a salary not less
than that which he was receiving when his position was abolished or
discontinued. Any person whose name is placed on a preferred eligible
list as hereinbefore provided shall, for the purpose of maintaining his
status in any retirement system of which he is a member, be deemed to be
on leave of absence without pay.

9. Persons having tenure under the provisions of this section may be
removed or suspended from the permanent instructional staff for one or
more of the following reasons, provided, however, that, except as to a
charge of misconduct constituting a crime when committed, no proceedings
shall be commenced more than five years after the occurrence of the
alleged incompetency or misconduct:

a. incompetent or inefficient service;

b. neglect of duty;

c. physical or mental incapacity;

d. conduct unbecoming a member of the staff. This provision shall not
be so interpreted as to constitute interference with academic freedom.

Proceedings for the removal of such a person shall be conducted in
accordance with the by-laws of the board of trustees, and shall be
initiated by service by the board of trustees upon the person involved
of a notice setting forth all the charges pending against him. Such a
person so charged shall be entitled to a hearing with right of
representation by any person or persons of his choice before any
committee which the board of trustees may appoint to investigate such
charges, or, in the event that such a committee is not appointed, before
the board of trustees. In cases in which such a committee is appointed,
such a person shall further be entitled to an appeal on the record with
right of representation by any person or persons of his choice before
the board of trustees prior to its final determination of the question
of his removal. No such person shall be removed except at a regular or
special meeting of the board of trustees, by an affirmative vote of the
majority of all the members of the board of trustees. For the purposes
of any such proceeding, the board by its chairman or the chairman of any
such committee shall have power to subpoena witnesses, papers and
records, and to administer oaths.

10. If any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this section, or the
application thereof to any person or circumstance, shall, for any
reason, be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid,
such judgment or order shall not invalidate the remainder of this
section and the application thereof to other persons or circumstances,

but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence,
paragraph or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which
such judgment or order shall have been rendered and to the person or
circumstance involved.